Inclusive,
Participatory and Accountable Approaches for Sustainable Urbanization 25 ~ 27 May
2022 at 14:00 pm (KST) Organized by United
Nations Institute for Training and Research(UNITAR) CIFAL Jeju Background Currently, half of the world’s
population live in urban areas. This number will increase up to two-thirds by
2050[1]. Indeed,
cities are and will be where the majority of the world’s population live. As
history shows, cities have played a key part in leading growth and development.
Cities are also the place where many of the global challenges are encountered
and addressed – extreme poverty, unemployment, environmental disruption and
climate risks. The movement towards an increasingly urbanized world is a transformative
driver that can and should be channeled into sustainable development for people
and places in every country. Rapid and expansive urbanization with
unplanned and poor management, however, poses profound challenges such as
economic disorder, civil unrest, congestion and environmental degradation, as
well as increases in slums and sprawl (UN-Habitat 2016). Urbanization particularly in developing countries is bringing about significant
changes in terms of the distribution of people and resource, not to mention
land usage and consumption. Such enormous transformation generally happens in
line with social and economic development, and yet many countries still are not
well equipped with the policies and frameworks that can support and leverage
the change towards sustainable urban future. In the developing world, challenges resulting from
urbanization often seem to exceed the development outcomes: better access to
assets and resource, huge wealth and opportunities that urbanization allows. In order to benefit from urbanization and minimize its negative consequences through
the paradigm shift in urban planning, cities need a policy approach and
directions coordinated in line with their own context. However, this is lacking
in many countries since each government department is held accountable for
different aspects of their own national priority, and urbanization is hardly viewed
as an overall national development opportunity (UN-Habitat – National
Urban Policy). The nature
and features of urbanization in each country and region is varied and so are
the challenges facing different cities. This indicates that there is a need for
a well-structured urban development framework to present a long-term vision and
suggest priorities and actions, allowing governments and other stakeholders to
address context specific urban needs and challenges while the framework is designed
to be universally applicable (The New Urban Agenda). In this regard,
UNITAR CIFAL Jeju organizes a virtual capacity building workshop to provide
space for knowledge sharing and peer learning experiences along with expert
insights on the pathways to inclusive and sustainable urbanization. The workshop
will explore how the New Urban Agenda can play a part as an accelerator of the
SDGs, particularly SDG 11 – Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe,
resilient and sustainable, along with how to implement intervention mechanisms
and ensure citizen participation for sustainable urban development. Also, the
program will provide the participants with the opportunity to gain insights
into urban development and urban regeneration through case study sharing.
Finally, the participants will be engaged in the whole process of developing an
action plan based on their own city context using a CityShare methodology[2]. Event objectives To provide a platform for
sharing good practices and lessons learned on the pathways
to inclusive and sustainable urbanization To explore how to leverage the
New Urban Agenda to tackle the urbanization challenges To develop an action plan
to be implemented in their home cities using the knowledge both gained from
expert lectures and shared among fellow participants Expected outcomes Better understanding of what
the New Urban Agenda can bring about for sustainable urbanization in line with
the SDGs Sharing different experiences
in sustainable urban development engagement Getting familiar with
strategies and tools that can be adapted to the contexts and needs of each
locality for city policies Target audience -
This training is mainly open to those from
different sectors in the Asia Pacific region – governments, NGOs, CSOs and
Private Sectors, who have been working in the urban development area in
line with SDG 11 – Make cities and
human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. Methodology The training consists of: -
expert lecture and Q&A
session -
group activity and case
study sharing -
individual assignments Program Structure
*
Venue Online (The whole program will be delivered using the Gather[3]
platform.) Application deadline - Please apply by May 17, 2022 (Tuesday)through the following link. * Please note the following: -
Those
with at least two years of working experience in the urban development
sphere will be preferred. -
The
participants should be fluent in written and spoken English. -
Only selected participants
will be notified individually
along with the guidelines for the program. - If a
participant does not attend any session
during the training without notice, he/she will NOT be allowed to participate in any CIFAL Jeju
programs for another year. Certificate A Certificate of Completion will be jointly issued by UNITAR and UNITAR CIFAL Jeju. Selected participants are required to
complete the following to be eligible for the certificate: - Attend and actively participate in all sessions with the camera on at all times - Complete and submit individual pre-workshop assignment and action plan [1]World
Urbanization Prospects – The 2018 Revision, United Nations 2019 [2]CityShare Methodology
is a tool developed by UNITAR to enable cities to share experiences.
The CityShare approach can be set out as follows: first, to assess current
levels of competencies in each city to identify its strengths and weaknesses,
secondly, to share experiences, knowledge, skills and innovative ideas based on
the assessment with peer participants to find a solution which leads to
developing an action plan, and lastly, to find partner(s) for future
city-to-city cooperation. [3]Gather, one of
the frequently used metaverse platforms, is an avatar-based, virtual
gathering space where real interaction is allowed like in a face-to-face event. A Gather Town is a customized room created
by a user on Gather; you can think of it as the equivalent of a Zoom meeting
room. Towns can come in all designs and forms, and JITC’s Gather town set for this
workshop is modeled around the JITC’s actual seminar room, as well as Jeju
Island’s beaches.
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